Tag Archives: friends

Starstruck at Mohegan Sun

Like I said yesterday…and the day before…I’ve got an exciting evening to share! So exciting I had to give it a build-up of several days, I suppose. I wasn’t going to let a snowy Saturday get me down this past weekend. I had exciting plans to reunite with college friends at Mohegan Sun Casino, and thankfully by the time I left around 6pm, the highways were pretty much all cleared and it was (fairly) smooth sailing during my trip.

I arrived, found some of our group playing video poker at a bar, and settled in with an Absolut Pear Martini while we waited for more friends to arrive so that we could grab dinner. The martini was delicious, just the pear-flavored vodka with a touch of vermouth, shaken with ice so that it was niiiice and chilly. I love a smooth, strong drink!

We grew to a party of six and set out to find a dining destination. The first two options we stopped at, Sol Toro and 23 Sports Cafe (both Michael Jordan restaurants), had waits. I had been hoping to try something new, but also didn’t want to delay dinner. Luckily, there were plenty of tables for large parties available at Jasper White’s Summer Shack, and old favorite of mine that I’ve visited a couple of times before, most recently during the Winter Storm Alfred power outage.

Specials are written on chalkboards throughout the restaurant.

The Summer Shack has the casual beach vibe of so many of the authentic seafood restaurants back in Florida that I adore. The seafood here is always fresh, and that’s the reason for the chalkboards throughout the restaurant that list the numerous special starters, entrees, and desserts.  So much of the menu is always changing, depending on what will taste the best based on availability!

Jeff and I, always foodie partners in crime.

I started off with a Dark & Stormy, or ginger beer with rum. This has become one of my favorite drinks to order whenever I see it on a drink menu when I’m out, ever since sampling it several times at Rooftop120. Their version, the Dark & Stormier, is definitely stromier aka STRONGER! However this Dark & Stormy was still delicious and I savored it throughout my meal…which resulted in me having to chug it so the rest of the party could leave and get-to-gamblin’, oops.

Reunited at the casino, at the end of our evening.

When the hostess was seating us, she informed me that Chef Jasper White himself (yes, it’s Jasper White’s Summer Shack) was actually in the restaurant that very evening! I became a bit of a babbling mess and blurted out that I would love the chance to meet him or talk to him, and tell him how much I enjoy his restaurant. I never ACTUALLY expected that Jasper White would come to our table to meet me!

Celeb chef sighting!

You know you’re a foodie when you’re fangirling over meeting the chef of a great restaurant, much like one would fangirl over meeting the singer of their favorite songs (oh yeah, I’ve done that before too). It was great to have the chance to tell Jasper about my blog, and how my family came to his restaurant during one of our nights without power during Winter Storm Alfred, and that I’d written about the experience and shared it with my readers. I  was so excited to give him my card – the idea of Jasper reading my blog was (and is) very exciting!

I was in for an even bigger surprise when Jasper sent over some appetizers for the table to sample! We received the stuffed oysters pictured above, as well as seafood potstickers. Both were beyond amazing, but I’d have to say my favorite of the two were the oysters. The crunchy breading atop the stuffing was so flaky, and the lemon juice squeezed atop each one really made it.

Ever the adventurous foodies, Jeff and I decided to split two of the more unique appetizer specials. First was the baby octopus with crushed tomatoes and white beans. This was fantastic! The octopus had a really nice flavor and the beans and tomatoes tasted SO good served atop that crunchy bread on the side – kinda like a little bruschetta! I squeezed a lot of the lemon wedge’s juice onto the greens too.

Unfortunately, our second choice, grilled sardines with a spicy marinara, were a little bit of a fail due to the bones! The fish that I did taste was good – I have been curious to try sardines ever since reading about them in the blog world, first on Kath Eats. It wasn’t too salty like I’d feared. The issue was the skeleton – the tiny sardine bones were impossible to pick out! This just comes with the territory of eating sardines I guess, but I am not a fan of high-maintenance dishes like that. Jeff and I both kinda gave up eventually, which was unfortunate because the fish was yummy! I guess bone fish just is not for me. The marinara didn’t taste that spicy to us, but I did enjoy its flavor and scooped some onto more of that crunchy bread, and put more lemon juice on this app’s greens as well. I like how each app comes with greens – the maple-glazed scallops I ordered last time did as well!

In contrast to the interesting apps Jeff and I sampled, our friend Charlie, the king of the plainest foods of all time, ordered buffalo wings. He was more than eager to give me his review, declaring that the meat was delicious, but the wings lacked any buffalo flavor (he also wanted me to include that he is, indeed, from the Buffalo area). He also declared the bleu cheese sauce to be excellent. My friend Prasant tried a wing, and gave the same consensus as Charlie. Sounds good to me, since I cannot deal with anything spicy, but these may not be the best choice if you are looking for a spicy wing!

Prasant and my other friend, Alex, ordered the same thing…the cheeseburger. Can’t go wrong with a good old burger every now and then, but as you can see, Jeff’s tastes align more with mine when it comes to what to order at a seafood restaurant! Prasant and Alex both liked their burgers though, and that grilled onion in the photo above looks really good to me!

Clearly I was so psyched about the pickles I received with my food (always gotta order pickles on the side, right Christina?) that I couldn’t sit still enough to let Jeff take a photo that wasn’t blurry.

The service we received at Jasper White’s Summer Shack was also excellent. Our waiter was really nice and, after initially bringing me 2 pickles, brought me a few more after he found out he would have to charge me $1 for them. Thanks, man!

And a huge thanks to Jasper White for being kind enough to check out my blog and send some delicious seafood my way!

While the boys in our crew headed to the craps table (where Jeff went on a heater and proceeded to win the tables’ players amounts ranging from tens to thousands of dollars), my friend Kelly (this is a third Kelly I know, so now I have mentioned all three of them on the blog at some point, yay!) and I decided to class it up, pass by the free casino beverages, and spend a little money to enjoy a more unique cocktail at Leffingwell’s Martini Lounge.

Such a gorgeous place! The bar was full, so we settled into some giant red comfy chairs (that were a little too large and seemed to swallow us) and perused the martini menu.

I was worried I’d have a hard time deciding on a drink, but immediately spotted the French Pear martini, remembered the first pear martini I’d had from earlier that evening, and decided that trying a version of it that included eldeflower liqueur and a twist was just what I wanted!

Kelly satisfied her sweet tooth AND grape tooth with a Grape Snow Cone martini.

How cute is her hair? Jealous.

And my awkward photo-posing-with-a-martini, which you saw briefly on Sunday…

Drinks can be so pretty!

After we finished our drinks and had wonderful girl-time, Kelly and I met up with the boys at the craps table. There wasn’t room for me to jump in until Jeff’s heater had ended, but I still managed to leave the casino $20 richer!

Dammit Brookstone, ruining my lighting.

We hung out for a little while longer and I decided to give into a craving that I always get when I go to Mohegan…

Oh Half-Baked Fro Yo from Ben & Jerry’s, how I love you so. And how I LOVE sugar cones. Got a kid’s cone for a nice treat!

Taken by a random man who may or may not have been drunk. Open your eyes, Caitlin.

What a fantastic evening, which went quite well with the rest of my wonderful weekend. It was so great to see so many of my friends together in one place for the first time since graduation – and meet Jasper White!

Have you ever met the head chef of a restaurant? Do you ever visit the casino – and do you ever win?

Random Workout and Duffy’s Sports Grill

Hi all! I hope you enjoyed yesterday’s post on the Taste of New Haven: Canal Quarter tour that I did recently. If you  haven’t read it, check it out. You’ll be drooling by the end!

She might have my male readers drooling too #cheesy

Yesterday I was finally back to my sweatier workout routine after work. The day I got my wisdom teeth out (Friday), I did a relaxing YogaWorks Core Flow video in the evening, because I was so stiff from sitting around all day. It felt great, especially all the twisting poses. My back REALLY needed that. On Saturday and Sunday, I stuck to high-resistance elliptical sessions with some good magazines, and mat work. But yesterday I got to the gym, and I had HIIT on the brain. I got on the Step Mill for 30 minutes with the above latest issue of “Self” (and some “Entertainment Tonight” Golden Globes coverage) and did speed intervals, levels 15-17. It ended up coming out to just a little over 4 miles and I finished it off with…

Random Total-Body Moves:

Done and done, I was so ready to go home after that. It was 8pm by that time and I was starved. Luckily I came home to roasted Brussels sprouts and chili. Oh, the joys of living at home.

Let’s get back to my Florida vacation recapping, yes? 

I think it’s so cool when two “separate worlds” combine in unexpected places. An example of this occurred our second night in Florida, when my dad arranged for my godfather AKA his best friend, Joe, and his son AKA one of my best friends, Greg, to join us for dinner at another old favorite spot, Duffy’s Sports Grill!

Greg and his family were also in Florida for the holidays, and I didn’t want the trip to come and go without at least one meet-up. Greg lives in Boston right now (he goes to law school at BU), but his parents live very close to us in CT and he and I both went to UConn, so it felt funny for our two CT-based families to be meeting for dinner in Florida, of all places! We actually have met up in a similar manner on a trip a couple of years ago, and it’s always a good time.

Dad, Joe, and Greg after a Duffy's meet-up in Florida '09.

Duffy’s started out as a little place that only served burgers, hot dogs, and chips – not even fries! It’s certainly expanded since then, with locations all over the east coast of Florida. My parents have adored the place for years and years, since before I was even born.

We arrived to find that the restaurant was, as usual, absolutely packed. My grandma is a Duffy’s MVP, so we did get a little bit of priority on seating, but still had to wait awhile. When you go to Duffy’s, you have to expect a wait if you don’t want to end up disappointed. Eat a snack beforehand – ha!

Sis and I.

Duffy’s also has two-for-one happy hour all day, every day. When you order a drink, they just bring you two of it. That’s Florida for you…never in CT would I see that. Lame.

Go Mom! 2-for-1, 2-for-1!

We were finally seated, though had to switch tables because we were mysteriously split up when there were tables available next to each other that we could have pushed together. There was also a slight incident in which our waiter forgot to take Greg’s dad’s order – but we hunted him down!

Posing with the siblings.

Despite the fact that Duffy’s is a “sports grill”, the menu really has options for everyone thanks to Florida’s abundance of fresh seafood. I always get fish whenever I can when I visit Florida. I consider it a waste not too – it’s so fresh!

I ordered my go-to white fish, the mahi-mahi with a baked potato and black beans. My mom got the exact same thing. We LOVE all three of those components.

I arrived at Duffy’s STARVED, and then ended up getting too full that I could not finish all that. Not like me!

Greg had never had kobe beef before, and Duffy’s is continuously voted Best Burger in FL, so he got a kobe burger. We were all disappointed to see that Duffy’s had gotten rid of their fantastic french fries and replaced them with shoestring fries! These are SO much less satisfying than regular fries, and our waiter agreed. He said it had been only a week, and they’d already had so many complaints that a plan was already being implemented to change them back. Don’t mess with a good thing!

Greg still enjoyed his burger, but he wasn’t blown away.

Duffy’s is a great place with reasonable prices, and I recommend giving their seafood or burgers a try if you’re in eastern FL – after they get their old fries back, of course.

How do you feel about shoestring fries?

Let me know if you try my workout moves!

First Restaurant Visit of 2012: La Petite France

Happy Hump Day! For me it’s more like a Thursday because I’m taking this Friday off work, but not for a fun reason (hate you, wisdom teeth). Had a bit of a bummer yesterday when my favorite spin class was full – got to the gym a bit later than I usually do on Tuesdays. The combo of New Year’s Resolutioners and weather that’s too cold for outdoor workouts always makes spin hard to get into at my gym until about March or so. Hope I have better luck next time, but I got a class in this past Sunday that was great, so all is well!

Ended up doing the Step Mill, my go-to machine for an efficient HIIT workout. I worked my way up to Level 16 speed intervals for the first time recently, and always do 30 minutes, so I wanted to push it and see if I could do 40. Felt like I was gonna die by the end, but I did it! Magazines are SO helpful (and the evening news during the fast intervals, when I’m climbing so fast there’s no chance in hell of me reading a single word).

If you want some cardio machine reading ideas, Diva on a Diet might be able to recommend “Working Out Sucks!” to you, since she won it recently in my giveaway. Thanks for the shout-out, girl!

Workout talk done, now who’s hungry?!

Of course I had to start 2012 with a visit to a newish-to-me restaurant on New Year’s Day, right? The star of today’s post is La Petite France Bakery & Cafe of West Hartford, CT (conveniently located on Farmington Ave, right by Blueback Square). I call this place “newish” because I did have a chance to sample one of their indulgent plain croissants at Bethany’s holiday brunch last month! After one bite I knew I would need to make my own visit, since I am a self-proclaimed cafe-enthusiast.

Remember these? Plain, chocolate, and almond croissants.

My good friend Kelly has been away at law school in Michigan all semester, and after we figured out that between our schedules our only day to meet up while she was home on winter break was New Year’s Day, we knew we had to make a date. We frequented Starbucks and Cafemantic at UConn together, so a cafe seemed an appropriate choice for a lunch spot!

I loved the exterior of the cafe from the very start. I’ve never been to Europe but it certainly looked authentic to me! I was totally starved after a good Stair Master session at the gym, so lunch sounded great to me. Of course the pastries looked incredible…but at lunch time, I’m always craving savory.

It didn’t take long at all for me to decide what I wanted. I was sold when I saw a build-your-own salad option, with an ingredients list that included some of my favorite creative salad best ingredients!

I love the casual setup of the coffee prep table!

I ordered a mixed greens salad with prosciutto, goat cheese, roasted red peppers, carrots, cucumbers, tomatoes, artichoke hearts, and balsamic vinaigrette. I couldn’t believe that the salad was one price, meaning I could add a ton of ingredients and get a more-interesting-than-chicken meat option, for a completely affordable price! The salad also came with a crusty piece of baguette.

This salad was so, so wonderful. The prosciutto was out of this world and the dressing was one of the best balsamic dressings I’ve ever had. The baguette was perfect, nice and crusty just the way I like them, and the veggies were abundant.

Of course, seeing as we were at a cafe, we had to get our caffeine on. When I saw that LPF has mugs for their coffee and espresso drinks, I was even more excited!

Jealous of Kelly's cute mug.

I selected my usual nonfat cafe au lait sprinkled with cinnamon, and Kelly got a cappuccino, which looked perfectly foamy.

I would love the chance to come back to La Petite France and do some studying sometime. The atmosphere is exactly what I work best in.

The cafe is also very active on social media. We’ve been known to trade a few tweets, and they even linked to my post about the croissants on their Facebook!

I will definitely be back to La Petite France Bakery & Cafe. A welcome addition to West Hartford Center!

When was the last time you pushed yourself extra in a workout?

Have you ever been to a French cafe – or France?!

New Year’s Eve: The Homebody Edition

I’m continuing my series of better-late-than-never recaps – I never got a chance to tell you guys how I ended 2011!

What happens when you graduate college and enter the working world? Nights out as a fabulous 21+ working woman, with money to burn on martinis and ritzy dresses? Intimate dinners with dashing men I meet at happy hours? Ha! What if I told you that I chose to spend my New Year’s Eve in glasses, sweatpants, and a sports bra? Would you believe me? Well, I have the proof right here:

Yes I'm posting this photo. And no you can't see the sports bra, but just believe me.

My friend Kelly (I’ve known her since high school!) and I were thrilled when we found out that we both desired the exact same kind of New Year’s Eve – one that would take place at home, on the couch, in front of TV specials.

Don’t worry, we were still somewhat young-professional-like…we drank wine! We ate cheese – and olives! Classy and sophisticated, right? Kelly even tried her first olive (she liked it, as a fellow sodium lover). The cheeses we ate were a sharp cheddar and a spicy pepperjack, and went so well on the little pumpernickel toasts Kelly provided.

How cute is this little cutting board? Underneath all the food, it says “may your glass always be half full”!

Kelly has a major sweet tooth, so she was kind enough to pick up dessert

We all know who the real star of the evening was…

The wine, which I purchased upon recommendation from Elliott of the always-dependable Sonoma Wine & Spirits, was an Italian red import called Icardi Barbera d’Asti Tabaren 2008. I say was because we finished the whole bottle. Check out the size of those wine glasses! This wine is actually organic, but the vineyard owner, who seems very sassy from what I hear, does not buy into the whole “certified” organic procedure and the fees associated with it. I can understand that! It was honestly the best red wine I’ve ever bought. I’m not exaggerating! Love Italian wines.

Here’s our full spread…

I also provided the above pictured dips (TJ’s horseradish hummus and Cedar’s tabouleh), and dipping mechanisms in the form of baby carrots, cherry tomatoes, and TJ’s veggie chips. Kelly and I joked that it looked like we were throwing a party for a bunch of hungry people – but nope, just two hungry girls!

I had such a great time catching up with Kel, hating on obvious marketing ploys on NYE specials (we’re both media enthusiasts), singing kid’s movie songs (“Swan Princess” anyone?), and of course feeding our faces. It was honestly the perfect New Year’s Eve.

Predictable (and late) question for today – What did you do for New Year’s Eve?

Christmas Eve…Two Weeks Later?

You have just a little over 24 hours left to enter the FitFluential Inc. giveaway for Anytime Fitness CEO Chuck Runyon’s new book, “Working Out Sucks! (And Why It Doesn’t Have To)!” Three people will win!

I’m very aware that Christmas Eve was two weeks ago. I’m also very aware that the dinner I ate that day was awesome and too great not to share. So without further ado, I give you Christmas Eve dinner.

Christmas Eve was a whirlwind of a day. After we were done being famous and eating breakfast in NYC, my dad, sister, and I got right in the car and headed back to CT. What was the reason behind our hurry to get back? Another beloved holiday tradition of course – our family friends, the Peredas, host a Christmas Eve pig roast dinner each year! Since they had an early flight out to Florida the next morning, the gathering was pushed to an earlier time than usual, and became more of a mid-afternoon “linner”.

The Peredas are Cuban, and love to serve an entire roasted pig (that they cook on their back deck), rice, and beans, along with traditional salads, appetizers, and desserts that guests bring.

Broc casserole, corn casserole, and cheesy potatoes.

Joe and I arrived a bit late due to our wine-tasting stop, so some appetizers had been almost entirely cleaned out, but there was certainly no shortage of delicious food.

Mmm veggie madness!

Joe, AKA typical boy who doesn’t seem to care about or ever want food, wasn’t very hungry. I was though! I don’t like ham much, but the Peredas’ party is the only time I ever eat it, because this freshly-roasted pig is just SO good! The black beans, which they usually bring in from Pollo Tropical, were homemade this year because the nearest location closed. And they were actually the best they’ve ever been, so way to go Mrs. Pereda!

Joe's plate…lame.

My plate (and wine)…awesome.

And of course, more red wine was had! How could I not when I had so many delicious foods that paired well with it, like kalamatas?

I chatted with the Gerbers, who I’d just seen a couple days before at the Andersons’ get-together, and a bunch of other family friends that I hadn’t had the chance to catch up with in a few months.

Amazingly talented Mollie (she just got into the Mass Institute of Art!) and I.

Got to wear my new Kohl’s skirt from Black Friday! First time pairing a skirt with tights and heels, and I loved it.

Megan (she's a nutrition student!) and I.

My mom, me, and Mr. Gerber (Mollie and Megan's dad). They match!

Not long after my (late) arrival, dessert came out! So many options, but I had about one sample of each.

Cream cheese and almond stuffed strawberries – surprisingly, I didn’t like these too much! It’s just because the almond flavor was very strong. I can only take so much almond in anything. Everyone else adored them though – Vivian did a great job. Don’t trust me, I’m an almond-avoider!

If you weren't drooling yet, you are now.

She also made these mint chocolate chip cookies, which were perfectly gooey and didn’t skimp at all on the chocolate, just the way I like it. They reminded me of the cookies I got from my wine-twin Meg of Eat, Drink, and Be Sperry in the Great Food Blogger Cookie Swap!

Casual Steve stood guard over the other desserts pictured – many holiday cookies, including leftovers from Mrs. Anderson’s goodies!

I didn’t have any of the above creation because it was made with cherries, which are definitely one of my least favorite foods of all time. Too many cough syrup associations…but cherry lovers dove in!

One of our friends, Mr. Andries, happens to have a birthday on Christmas Eve! So the party was also a celebration for him. His daughter, Courtney, picked out the most fabulous red velvet Coldstone Creamery ice cream cake ever, made with cheesecake ice cream – which happens to be my favorite Coldstone flavor!

We all got a bit carried away with the birthday wishes, and followed up Mr. Andries’s birthday song with one for my mom, whose birthday was the day before. And then we expanded to other December birthdays…November birthdays…things started getting out of hand when we began singing to Mariel, whose birthday was back in early October.

Parents are into it.

My mom is loving it.

Nice bunny ears move, Mr. Pereda!

OK…can I have my cake now?!

Now that’s what I’m talking about. Hands down, best ice cream cake I’ve ever had.

The fun wasn’t over yet…I’m not even sure if these came out before or after the birthday singing, but it doesn’t really matter. What does matter is that Vivian had another success in the kitchen, and we all certainly benefitted.

I give you – butterscotch liqueur and caramel apple shots!

Now, I don’t like apples. But who couldn’t love these?

Sorry, Joe.

What a festive Christmas Eve! I think this may have been the best Pereda pig roast ever.

Afterwards, my family and I headed home to open presents – our first time doing so on the 24th, since our planes to Florida left early in the morning on Christmas Day. I definitely didn’t like it as much as the whole Christmas morning routine, but I couldn’t really complain because I just wanted to get on that plane to the warmth!

So you guessed it, this means I can finally start recapping my trip to Florida. I may finish writing about things that happened in December 2011 in…I don’t know…March 2012? Sounds about right 😛

Have you ever been to a pig roast or something similar? What’s your favorite place to get ice cream cake?